Welcome to The Smoking Tire. Kick ass automotive videos and more.

TUNED Season 1 Finale

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

 

It’s the final show for Season 1 of “Tuned” on YouTube’s Drive network. (Don’t worry, we’ll be back in July.) Over the season the channel was flooded with questions and comments, good and bad. So, for this episode, Matt decided to sit down and address the most common, or notable, from each episode. So grab a beer and hit ‘play’, or if you aren’t old enough, three 5 Hour Energy drinks. Actually don’t do that. (please please please don’t do that, you’ll die and sue us). Enjoy, and we’ll see you in July. (more…)

03.04.2012 News, Video 9 Comments

Video: TST’s Ultimate BMW Road Trip Part 2: BMW 650i vs Boston Whaler

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

 

It’s The Ultimate BMW Road Trip Part 2: BMW 650i vs Boston Whaler. For years Matt has wondered what the fastest way from Spring Island to Hilton Head Island was; by car or by boat? Time to find out. Matt is taking the new BMW 650i convertible, and has to watch for the strictest cops we’ve ever met. Zack is in the boat, and has to dress like an idiot. They race to find out which is faster: by land or by sea. Jump to watch.

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02.04.2012 Video No Comments

Saturday TV

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

by Zack Klapman

 

Saturday. National lazy -AKA “hangover”- day. You don’t want to think, you may have done that all week at work. Your eyes may have difficulty focusing on small words, understanding subtlety, context, sarcasm, or call-backs to previous paragraphs. No worries. We got you. We have 3 short videos that are entertaining and (slightly) educational. There’s vintage Senna footage, some F1 science, and famous drivers acting like children.

 

TV: books for people who can’t read. (more…)

31.03.2012 Uncategorized, Video No Comments

Mint 400 Crash at 96 MPH

Friday, March 30th, 2012

It's bad when the hood is at a 90 degree angle from the horizon.

by Zack K

 

Last weekend was the annual Mint 400, a race through the hot, desolate planet known as Nevada. It’s a gnarly race;  4 laps on a 92-mile course covered in sharp rocks and thick silt. It’s the Baja 1000 but shorter and without cocaine-covered AK47s. It’s been going on so long Steve McQueen ran it; a contributing factor to his resume smelling like lava, and Marilyn Monroe’s desk chair.

 

This year Robby Gordon won it (click for highlight video with dated electronic music). Props to Robby, who won by only 3 minutes. His highlight reel is cool, but the best video I found is the truck from Big Ugly Racing rolling at 96MPH. Thanks to safety gear and magic, drivers Kevin Sacalas and Bryan Bigsby walked away without serious injury. Amazing, considering they were rolling long enough to write this post. Jump to watch.

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30.03.2012 News, Video No Comments

Want to Drive: Subaru P1

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

by Zack K

Photo from CarScoop.

 

Thad sent me a link to this great write up from PistonHeads.com- about the Subaru P1- with the caption “I think we would all like to drive this.” 100% correct. No one in the TST house would turn down seat time in this car, least of all Tom or I. To be fair, my list of “Car I’d like to drive” could just have the word, “all” because if it were possible, I would like to drive everything that has ever existed.

 

But the P1 is special. I instantly remembered the test on Top Gear, with Tiff Needell comparing it to an EVO, R34 GTR and 911 Turbo. It was the first road car touched by Prodrive, and although today many pedestrian cars have similar power and AWD, this car was more than its build sheet. Jump for more info, and a few videos from the past. (more…)

29.03.2012 Editorials, Video 1 Comment

A Horrifying Lesson in Paying Attention(video)

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

by Zack K

 

Let me say up front, this is probably a video of a tragedy. If you don’t want to see a car smashed to pieces, move along. I posted this video because it drives home what can happen if you are not 100% focused on driving, ESPECIALLY when there is ice or snow on the road. I also posted this because recently someone has been spamming our FB page with videos of them doing what we describe as “really dangerous and stupid driving.” Passing on shoulders, crossing double yellow, “Playing Chicken with a Mac Truck”, etc.  They posted so many times (even after requests to stop) we had to ban them, because we don’t condone flagrantly dangerous and stupid driving. Some might argue BullRun is filled with insanity, but 1. A lot of those drivers use more caution than the poster. 2. The serious drivers (Rawlings, Roy) know how to speed safely, and 3. They don’t do it everyday, like this person was.

 

So this video is to send a reality check to everyone, but especially the keyboard bad-asses and wannabe race car drivers. You should always be focused on driving, but when there’s a variety of surfaces and slippery conditions, you need to be a ninja on Aderrall trying to count cards in Vegas. Jump to watch. (Warning, there is a terrible accident. No people are visible, but it’s clear some was very hurt or killed)

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27.03.2012 Uncategorized, Video 11 Comments

World Record: 75 Donuts at Once (videos)

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

by Zack K

 This post is dedicated to Dan Frederiksen, who called the GTR “primitive.”

This is my kind of team building exercise: setting the world record for most simultaneous donuts. Dear “trust fall”, you are officially the saltine packet at the buffet of team work. The previous record was 57, done in Australia sometime between 1902 and now. This time, 75 cars from around Northern California assembled at Infineon, for the weekly Sonoma Drift event. All the cars spread out on the tarmac. Some elected to put a cone down as a reference point. Considering you’re swinging a 3,000lb metal bat next to other 3,000lb metal bats, might be a good idea to stay in your area.

 

After some brake stands (the hoon’s answer to the National Anthem) the cars let loose, looking like a pinwheel firework factory mishap. Spirals of tire smoke as far as the eye could see. (Good thing I brought my re-useable grocery bags to the store today; It’s all about balancing our carbon footprint.) And where there’s drift cars, there’s cameras. Like a football replay thingy, we found 5 good angles for you to watch from. Enjoy, and bless these 75 brave drivers. They’re like the Buzz Aldrins of our generation. Ok, not really, but this is awesome.

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22.03.2012 Video 2 Comments

(Rally) Drive Angry

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Scroll down for the video.

by Zack K

 

Now this is my kind of driving that only a RWD car can achieve. It’s Patrick Snijers on his way to the 1988 Manx rally championship. He’s chucking a rectangle of metal into a corner with the fury,  power-on over-steer all over the place, darting over the bumpy roads with the agility and speed of Bruce Lee. A car that’s flying and darting along this fast, backed by the angry sound track of a pissed 4 cylinder, has a personality to it that is missing in other forms of racing. After locking in the win, by driving at what has to be at the absolute limit, Snijers started doing some “exhibition driving”, laying down rubber around each corner. Ohhhh me likey.

 

To Thad and I, this is how a car should be driven every day. If laws and safety allowed, I would attack every light, on-ramp and speed bump like this. It almost seems like he kidnapped his co-driver and is running from the police. To quote the great poet Mike Lowry, of the theatrical masterpiece, Bad Boys, “Now THAT’s how you supposed to drive!! From now on, THAT’s how you drive!!” Jump to see the video.

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21.03.2012 Video 8 Comments

TUNED: World’s Fastest Lotus?

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

by Zack K

 

It’s the second to last episode of TUNED, and it is a good one. We unfortunately had to postpone a shoot with this car so many times because…it kept breaking. But that’s bound to happen when you have a 1.8 liter engine that has both a super and turbo-charger. Yes. Exactly. With those two add-ons stuffing air in like Oprah at a Golden Corral, it makes 710HP. It’s also wider, lighter and has more custom pieces than Michael Jackson’s face. It is, without a doubt, the craziest car of the season.

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20.03.2012 Video 25 Comments

Lexus LFA Vinyl Wrap Time-Lapse

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

by Zack K

 

How long does it take to turn a black Lexus LFA yellow, using vinyl? 18 hours. Top Gear USA needed a yellow Lexus LFA for an upcoming shoot, but I guess the normal yellow press car was busy (or maybe broken, like it was when The Car Show needed one). So VIP Auto Salon set up a camera on time-lapse and went to work transforming this one.

 

I never knew how long a vinyl wrap took, but I didn’t expect it to take 18 hours. But there’s a noticeable difference between a cheap quick wrap and one that is almost indiscernible from a real paint job. If you want every curve, crack and seam properly filled with stretchy plastic, it takes time. The beauty of time-lapse is 18 hours is compressed into a 5 minute video. Jump to watch.

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20.03.2012 Video 6 Comments

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